DIY Coolant Change

I like the Airlift and am very happy that I got one...very easy to use specially for first time using it. I've always just done it by bleeding before. But now,I'll be using the Airlift. I'm glad I found one used on eBay too. And I've had an old compressor, so that was not an expense for me....plus, I have multiple cars to it will pay for itself quickly.

OnePlus One?

 

Thanks to NutzAboutBolts for videos on changing coolant, on both engine and inverter circuits, along with many others:

Nutz About Bolts Prius Maintenance Videos | PriusChat

 

That turned out to be about my experience too, a bit to my surprise. I had brought home 3 gallons of SLLC because I knew from the manual the engine alone was supposed to be nearly 2 (7.6 quarts) and the inverter loop just over half a gallon (2.2 qt). I also made an extra trip to the recycle dropoff after changing the inverter loop and before tackling the engine, because I knew the total amount wouldn't fit in my catch container.

The inverter change was really straightforward. About the expected amount came out, and refilling was no trouble. If you have Techstream, after first filling, you can just leave the car IG ON and tell Techstream to start the inverter pump, and go stand in front pouring more fluid in until it stops gulping down, turn it back off and you're done.

Then I came back from dropping that off at recycling, and started on the engine, and out of the spec'd nearly 2 gallons the amount that drained was barely 1. (No, it wasn't low on coolant when I started.) Is that the typical experience for others? I drained by the book, using both the radiator drain cock and the one at the back of the engine block.

The engine block drain cock had a little curved tube out the bottom, useful for attaching a hose so it doesn't just blort coolant all over the axle and suspension. I think the hose from there down to my catch container might even have helped siphon coolant out faster than it would have drained on its own. Still, I only got about a gallon out, so this procedure seems to be about a half-change of the engine coolant ... if I didn't miss something obvious.

Are others doing more work, like taking off exhaust-heat-recovery hoses, to get more than a gallon out?

The engine block drain cock was easy to open, once I found it (which was not easy). It was a little messy because, even though I fit a hose onto the little spigot tube, some coolant also came around the threads of the loosened plug.

Also, I remember the same plug on my old Gen 1 had been really hard to turn, so hard I had been afraid of breaking it, and it stayed that hard to turn all the way open and all the way closed again. Since the one on my Gen 3 was easy, I figured I'd like it to stay easy, so I unscrewed the plug-part all the way, dried it off, and put it back in with Hylomar blue stuff on the threads, which should both help keep it from rusting up, and stop the leakage around the threads next time I use it.

Any glycol-resistant, non-hardening sealer would probably do, but the Hylomar blue was what I had used on my Gen 1 inverter bleeders and it worked exactly as I'd hoped.

Filling and bleeding the engine went even more smoothly than I expected. At first, while filling into the reservoir "until coolant overflows from the air release valve", I got puzzled when I was nearly up to the filler neck and nothing had come out of the bleed valve yet. Thought maybe I didn't have the car level, or something.

I do have an Airlift-like vacuum venturi, which I otherwise didn't use for anything on this job, but I just touched it for an instant to the hose I had put on the bleed valve and sure enough, coolant started coming right out, a bit of froth but hardly even one bubble of any size. I think I just chickened out early, and if I had kept pouring into the reservoir right up to the filler neck, it would have flowed out of the bleeder on its own.

After that it was all strictly by the book, I squoze some hoses, didn't even notice any burps, closed the bleed valve, made sure the fluid was at the reservoir "B" mark above "FULL", closed the cap, warmed up the engine, heat on high fan low, squoze the hoses again, really sure I didn't even notice any burps then, shut the engine off and came back in the morning to see the cooled fluid was right down at the FULL mark, as exactly as if I had painstakingly basted it there, but no, that's just where it wound up. It seems like they put their bleed valve in just the right place, and it does the job well enough I really never burped any other air out or had to fine-tune the level at all.

I was a little peeved making my second trip to the recycle dropoff, considering really all the fluid I drained from both systems would have fit in my container for one trip....

-Chap

 

How much coolant came out of the engine block, Chap?

I've seen comment that not much comes out. With Hondas I've always had a real flood.

 

+1.

Airlift is a Godsend. Just like Ryobi's One+ 18V, 1/2impact wrench; tire rotations and high torque nuts/bolts are a breeze.

 

Yeah ... more than none, but kind of an anticlimax after the work of finding the spigot and opening it. Well under a pint, I'd estimate.

I could get excited about it if that were the whole difference between a complete change and a partial one, but considering I used both drain locations and there still has to be nearly a gallon in there that never got drained or changed at all ....

-Chap

 

Someone disconnected a coolant hose at the exhaust to drain (as you mention). I forget how that turned out, but that'd be my guess for the missing gallon.

 

Oop, looks like I might have misidentified the exact blue stuff. I was using the version formerly sold by Permatex in the States, and according to Hylomar's web site, that would have been equivalent to their "Advanced Formula", not the "Universal Blue". Though I bet either would work....

I've had the stuff for years ... long past what they say is its shelf life ....

-Chap

 

I really got to tackle this next.

 

let's ask like this: did neone ever use MORE than two gallons total for inverter AND ice?
(on one hand I don't want to buy three gallons & be stuck with one gallon leftover, on the other hand I don't want to run out of anti-freeze halfway through)

 

Two was more than I needed, but it doesn't hurt to have a third, sealed container on hand in case you spill... as long as you can return it unused.

 

When I did mine today ( did both coolants), I used about 1.5 gallons. I did the draining with the front of the car elevated.

It took 54 ounces to fill the inverter coolant and 133 ounces to fill the engine coolant. I know the ounces due to raiding the wife's kitchen cabinets awhile back and procuring her cupcake batter measuring device and adding it to the work bench. It resides next to the baster which I had to use today after slightly overfilling the inverter reservoir.

But two gallons was more than enough for me.

 

My pdf of the Repair Manual indicates there's an air relief valve. I seem to recall someone here saying it existed in 2010/2011, then was discontinued. Anyone else remember?

Basically you leave that valve open during the refill, till coolant starts coming out. Then shut it and continue filling. When you're filling with such a valve open, you can hear the air whistling out.

Seems like coolant drain and fill with just the radiator drained is leaving a lot of the old coolant. And draining via the engine block bolt is only an extra pint or so?

7.7 US qts is 246 oz. minus 133 leaves: 113 oz, or about 3.5 quarts.



Maybe disconnecting an exhaust heat recirc. hose helps??

I just changed the coolant on a Civic, and there the block drain bolt was the motherlode. Take that off and it was the great flood.

 

My 2010 definitely has the relief valve, right where the manual says, and it does just what it's s'posed to. When I filled until I got fluid out the relief valve, then went through the rest of the bleeding steps, it was as if there was hardly any air still needing to be bled from the system at all.

As for it not being in later models, I do not know. There was a part number change during the 2010 model year from 87251-47010 to 87251-47020 but when I google both part numbers, they look the same, and the -47020 number continues to be shown in parts catalogs and toyodiy right up through the 2015 model year at least. That would seem to suggest every Gen 3 has one. (If I remember right, the Nutz about Bolts video didn't mention it at all, which I thought was odd.)

I never heard a whistle, but then I was pouring in pretty slowly.

Yeah, that's about the amount I was guessing I hadn't changed. Oh well. Toyota doesn't say to undo the exhaust heat recovery hoses; this is the procedure they give, and it seems to be roughly a half-change of the coolant. Oh well, so it mixes up, and I guess at least now the average age of my corrosion inhibitors is about 3 years. (I did not use test strips on the drained coolant, to get any idea how degraded it was.)

-Chap

 

Yeah you could look at it like a regular automatic transmission fluid change, where you only get about 50~60%. No big deal, periodic replacement is what matters. @NutzAboutBolts didn't even bother with the engine block. I would, if I didn't know that you only get about a pint out of there, but now I don't know.

 

Sorry to bump this old thread but how much coolant do you need for a 2010 if you just drain all the coolant out of the radiator and refill? I'm asking about the ICE system only, the inverter coolant was already done.

Do I need 1 gallon or 2 for the ICE system?

 

The Engine coolant is more than one gallon. Two gallons will cover both the engine and inverter coolants, as long as you don't spill. Inverter coolant doesn't take much at all.

 

When I changed the coolants at 140 k miles it took 133 ounces for the engine coolant and 55 ounces for the inverter coolant.

 

way to be specific

 

I wrote it on the top of the overflow containers so I wouldn't forget.

It would be nice if they sold the bottles in quarts as well.